335. The Aliso Viejo Spa Bombing - The Murder of Ildiko Krajnyak

On this episode, Garrett and Payton dive into the case of Ildiko Krajnyak, a successful spa owner whose life was tragically cut short by a mysterious explosion at her spa. Links: Netflix Video Every Monday @11am PST, 12pm MST, 2pm EST 1pm CST https://www.netflix.com/murderwithmyhusband Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: Justice.gov - https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/long-beach-man-sentenced-life-prison-bombing-aliso-viejo-spa-attack-killed-his-ex?bm-verify=AAQAAAAN_____5vC8xIQMf-OeVQ1m3a9u04U1BdcRjmwkfsMSUZoeMlvKcN04ScwJiYwmFZEFUOWryhD2CuEMDy0TWKB0dV-Tqqj1oDud7Pyget6PrhRGcFaFkdLPDa-sW01CKkb1VPEmkGv73dkRahI1Og8eR1_gSIb_vdSG4WErRWYWs9iUQ9nvVlp3bD86-k7yzyQcDKPXWU5lMWOVzWezAAaAME-bMFIy-t2SKa9rzbQ-FIjImSsx3oOiClqhTeXV4NE2d0Ci-YB8PkPgd5vQBO2giImCeLe1-SWu_WWMf7GjwDIjnvHM0q1ge3x6EQA84tFSuKFW1eephMmSYX-hdqPEyHlFa25s1uD2Co3CGuZ269ByfPN-47sgd6sv5aiklLP8Sd94auzvnLtt3jnR3SgXzs PeacockTV.com - https://www.peacocktv.com/watch/playback/vod/_/f77604d6-ba0b-3091-bf1e-8cf4d5e3e531?paused=true BBC.com - https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44157819 ABC7.com - https://abc7.com/post/aliso-viejo-bombing-spa-sentenced/14340689/ Medium.com - https://medium.com/@spikytv786/ildiko-krajnyak-murder-where-is-stephen-beal-now-39c7d953d4f7 CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stephen-william-beal-ex-charged-blast-that-killed-california-day-spa-owner-ildiko-krajnyak/ People.com - https://people.com/inside-ildiko-krajnyak-bomb-murder-dateline-11875836 NBCNews.com - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-bomber-wife-dies-new-details-before-blast-dateline-rcna137641 CourtHouseNews.com - https://www.courthousenews.com/california-man-gets-life-sentence-for-day-spa-bombing-that-killed-his-ex-girlfriend/ FoxLA.com - https://www.foxla.com/news/stephen-beal-sentence-aliso-viejo-deadly-bombing Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/crime-time/stephen-beal-arrested-in-connection-with-spa-explosion-that-killed-ildiko-krajnyak NY1.com - https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/ap-top-news/2024/01/19/man-sentenced-to-life-plus-30-years-in-2018-california-spa-bombing-that-killed-his-ex-girlfriend NPR.org - https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/17/611932563/fbi-arrests-rocket-builder-former-boyfriend-of-woman-killed-in-california-explos LAMag.com - https://lamag.com/news/long-beach-man-life-sentence-blowing-up-spa-to-kill-girlfriend/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02Speaker 00

  Fall never arrives all at once. First the air, then the light. And slowly, the things you love begin to find each other. A jacket meets a dress, a hoodie slips beneath a blazer, an old cap finds a new scarf. Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross.

• 0:31Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Payton Moreland.

• 0:38Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 0:39Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 0:40Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband. Hello, welcome back. I hope everyone's having an amazing day. Yeah, I don't know. How's our day?

• 0:47Payton Moreland?

  Good. I don't know.

• 0:48Garrett Moreland?

  Working.

• 0:49Payton Moreland?

  Working, yeah.

• 0:50Garrett Moreland?

  Working on the weekends like usual, you know?

• 0:54Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 0:55Garrett Moreland?

  Name that song, everybody. Uh, thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. Thank you for supporting. We love you guys. Daisy's tired. She went swimming today for the first time in a long time. So if you're watching on video, you will see she is just absolutely a little

• 1:11Payton Moreland?

  zonky.

• 1:11Garrett Moreland?

  droopy, drowsy, zonky. Yeah, I think that's all we got. Uh, do we have any announcements? Merch?

• 1:19Payton Moreland?

  Oh, yeah. Dude, we almost forgot.

• 1:22Garrett Moreland?

  We have some new

• 1:24Payton Moreland?

  baby merch. You guys were dropping some kind of like mommy and me spooky season baby merch. But obviously we want you to get it now so that you know you can have it for all of fall. Um, it's very much just like Murder with My Husband basics. Nothing super true crime, obviously, or graphic on them. More just like MWMH and cute matching stuff. But we have onesies. Don't worry, 100% organic. I know none of us are putting our babies in anything less. But yeah, um, I'm super excited about those. And hopefully we have one soon that can also wear them.

• 2:05Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, they're cute. Go check them out. Links everywhere. Anywhere you can find a link, it'll be there.

• 2:11Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 2:12Garrett Moreland?

  And we're going to get right into this week's case.

• 2:14Payton Moreland?

  I'm here. I'm literally not going to get ready to do it. I have to say something real quick. I think we had a mishap with ads last week.

• 2:21Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, okay.

• 2:21Payton Moreland?

  On a certain platform. So I just want to apologize to anyone who experienced that and was like, why the heck are we completely bombarded? Apparently there was something going on on the platform's end. We triple checked everything on our end. So fingers crossed that that's fixed. But I did just want to give an apology because that was obviously never, it's never intended to be bombarded like that. All right, our sources for this episode are justice.gov, Peacock TV, BBC.com, ABC7.com, Medium.com, CBSnews.com, People.com, NBCNews.com, Courthouse News, FoxLA.com, Oxygen.com, NY1.com, NPR.org, and Lamag.com.

• 3:05Payton Moreland?

  Pretty often when we hear news of a bombing, we often think this is a random act of mass violence, that it wasn't so much about the targets themselves as it was about the message that the bomb or bombers were trying to send. So the thing that makes an act of violence like this so terrifying is anyone can literally be collateral damage. And it leaves behind a crime scene that's very difficult to trace. There's usually very few witnesses, hardly any clues. And the perpetrator doesn't even have to be at the scene when the bomb goes off. They can do damage from miles away without ever leaving behind a hair,

• 3:50Payton Moreland?

  a fingerprint, or a shred of DNA. In many ways, a bomb is a good weapon for murder. But no weapon is perfect if the person who built it can't seem to keep it a secret.

• 4:06Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 4:06Payton Moreland?

  So today we are actually headed to sunny California, to a town about an hour south of Los Angeles called Elisa Viejo.

• 4:18Garrett Moreland?

  Ooh, very familiar with this town, this city.

• 4:21Payton Moreland?

  Yes.

• 4:22Garrett Moreland?

  How have I not heard of this?

• 4:23Payton Moreland?

  Because it's not as grand scale as a bombing typically is.

• 4:27Garrett Moreland?

  15, 20 minutes for where I grew up, by the way, everybody.

• 4:29Payton Moreland?

  So we're headed there to Elisa Viejo. And we are meeting a 48-year-old esthetician named Ildiko Kronjak. Now, quite a name. Ildiko was born and raised in Hungary. But once she reached her twenties, she dreamed of moving to America, starting a new life for herself. So eventually she does move to California and she finds herself in a relationship with a man named Ronilo Vestil. Now, Ildiko's cousin admired this new relationship. Her cousin said that they were just so in love.

• 5:12Payton Moreland?

  They were both wonderful people who made each other happy. Everyone said Ronilo treated Ildiko well and would help her with her family back in Hungary, any chance he got. So it was no surprise when they tied the knot and then welcomed a baby boy into their lives. Now, as the years passed and their son got older, Ildiko decided to follow her career goals and get her cosmetology and esthetician's license. And she eventually ended up owning her own spa in a commercial building in Elisa Viejo called Magia Cosmetica.

• 5:52Payton Moreland?

  And by 2018, her son was now grown and in college. And by this point, Ronilo and Ildiko, who had been so in love, had had this beautiful love story in America. They had also started to grow apart. There was a disconnect growing in their 22-year-long marriage by 2018. The two weren't quite ready for a divorce, but apparently it was enough that Ildiko started to have a wandering eye. And she began looking for love in places outside of their marriage.

• 6:33Payton Moreland?

  Apparently, this is something she and Ronilo were working on, but never got to fully mend. Because on May 15th, 2018, the unthinkable happened. Ildiko had just come back from visiting some family in Hungary the night before. So she'd been gone for a couple of weeks, but was quickly getting back into the groove of seeing clients at her spa in Elisa Viejo. Now that day, she treated her friend Sarah. Sarah was a longtime client of hers who was getting her lashes done. Sarah said that everything seemed to be going well for Ildiko. She spoke about her trip and her family.

• 7:17Payton Moreland?

  They caught up on their lives, just like they often did during their appointments. And then later that day, around noon, Ildiko had two other clients in her spa. It was a mother and daughter who she was treating together. But just after 1:00 PM, the city of Elisa Viejo felt the rattle of what seemed to be at first maybe a little earthquake. Ildiko's friend Holly, who lived about a mile away from the spa, had heard it. And what she recalled was much bigger than any earthquake she'd experienced. She said she heard a massive explosion. Now, within the next hour or two,

• 8:01Payton Moreland?

  the source of this explosion was all over the news. This wasn't an earthquake. A two-story office building in Elisa Viejo had just exploded.

• 8:15Garrett Moreland?

  How, I don't understand. What date are we in?

• 8:17Payton Moreland?

  2018. We were living there.

• 8:20Garrett Moreland?

  How, how did I not hear about this?

• 8:23Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, California's big.

• 8:24Garrett Moreland?

  Am I just like a completely oblivious sometimes? There's no way because anyways, I'm not going to get into it. Like, I keep up with a lot. True crime's not one of those things I keep up with, but I don't know. Confused.

• 8:36Payton Moreland?

  So apparently bystanders were filming the damage of this building blowing up. News trucks were covering the story. And meanwhile, the Orange County Sheriff's Department was at the scene along with fire trucks and ambulances. They weren't sure if this had been a gas leak or something more nefarious. But one thing was clear. There was a loss of life at the scene. Outside of the building, severed body parts were found among the debris. And the smell of sulfur, like you would get from fireworks, was definitely in the air.

• 9:18Payton Moreland?

  Now, when Holly, Ildiko's friend who lived close by, saw the news of where the bombing had taken place, her heart sank because she knew this is the same building that the spa is in. And she had a terrible feeling. Unfortunately, she was right. When police arrived, they discovered that Ildiko's two clients, so the mother and daughter who had been her last appointments that day, they were both still alive. They were raced to a nearby hospital. But Ildiko had not survived the blast. It was her severed remains that were found scattered throughout the scene.

• 10:01Payton Moreland?

  Now thankfully, the radius of the blast didn't injure anyone else in the vicinity. It was just the people in the building, especially because there was a preschool that was not too far away from the spa. But obviously, police are immediately like, what happened?

• 10:19Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 10:20Payton Moreland?

  What caused this explosion? Like, we have a fatality. Now, while teams began combing the scene, detectives spoke to the mother and daughter, who were being treated for their injuries at the hospital. They both had second and third degree burns. The mother, unfortunately, had lost her eye in this blast. Her daughter, though, happened to remember something critical and useful before the explosion went off. You know, when police are like, tell us about your appointment, what was going on? What did you hear? See, she said they had actually just finished their treatments, and they went out to the lobby to pay. And that was when Ildiko picked up a package.

• 11:04Payton Moreland?

  She grabbed a tool and began opening the package, which, according to the daughter, was then followed immediately by a blinding light. They were knocked unconscious as the blast hit, and the walls of the building basically turned to rubble. It was a miracle that these two had survived.

• 11:25Garrett Moreland?

  This is crazy.

• 11:27Payton Moreland?

  But this immediately tells detectives something important, because obviously, this package had caused the explosion. And I think especially nowadays, when detectives hear this, their immediate thought is, is this an act of terrorism? Or was this a personal bomb intended for this spa? So by the end of the day, the FBI was also there at the crime scene. Obviously, they were called in, they were collecting clues. They were trying to figure out exactly what kind of explosive device they were dealing with. And as they sifted through the debris, they found parts of a CVS branded nine-volt battery, and parts of a wire that were actually embedded

• 12:12Payton Moreland?

  into the ceiling of the salon. So they began to believe this was part of a homemade fusing system that someone had put together, which told them that whoever built this bomb knew what they were doing.

• 12:30Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 12:30Payton Moreland?

  They had some sort of specialized skill or sophisticated knowledge of how to make something this powerful at home. For the Orange County Sheriff's Department, this sounded terrifyingly familiar, because back in March of that year, just two months prior, Austin, Texas, was actually dealing with their own series of package bombs. There had been about five total bombs in Texas. They had killed two people and injured several others. And all of these bombs, again, were package bombs.

• 13:05Garrett Moreland?

  You know, honestly, this is something that I think about sometimes.

• 13:09Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 13:09Garrett Moreland?

  Like, that, I'm glad it doesn't happen more, but I guess I'm surprised it doesn't happen more. But also, I mean, there are security systems and systems put in place, so it doesn't happen. But it's scary. Like, people can, you can make a bomb and just.

• 13:26Payton Moreland?

  I mean, there is a series of bombs right here in Salt Lake City.

• 13:29Garrett Moreland?

  Yes, yeah. Like, it just, it's scary. I don't know.

• 13:32Payton Moreland?

  So.

• 13:33Garrett Moreland?

  Freaks me out.

• 13:34Payton Moreland?

  These Texas bombs that had, were around this same time, police eventually traced those bombs to a man named Mark Anthony Condit, who died after detonating one of his own bombs inside his car. They never actually found the motive for these Texas bombs, though Condit did state in a recorded confession that he was, quote, "a psychopath." And since he actually died before the explosion at Ildiko's spa, police were like, it can't be him. But this is so eerie that we've had a series of package bombs in Texas a couple of months ago, and now we've just had our own package bomb here in Southern California.

• 14:17Payton Moreland?

  So they're like, is there a chance this is an accomplice? Is this a copycat bomber? These were all things that needed to be considered. Though, they do eventually learn that the package that had been opened, the bomb package, was intended for Ildiko. It was addressed to her. So this makes them feel like she was probably the primary target. And that meant speaking to those closest to her to see who might have wanted her dead. It's definitely a pretty wild way to just kill one person. But that's what they're starting to think, is that this was just one targeted event.

• 15:00Payton Moreland?

  So, one of the first threads they follow is obviously Ildiko's husband, Ranilo. He said he was at work during the time of the bomb blast, and he actually rushed down to the scene this second that his brother told him about where the explosion was. But there was something a little strange about his story. He tells police, he wasn't even sure if Ildiko had come back from her Hungary trip yet. So he wasn't even sure if she was inside the spa when it blew up. Now, Ranilo and Ildiko were seemingly, like I said, on a bit of a break at this point, separated, if you will. But they were still living together at the time.

• 15:43Payton Moreland?

  So it was odd that he wouldn't have known if she was in America.

• 15:47Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 15:48Payton Moreland?

  Like, at this point. Though, to be fair, she had just gone back the night before and then went into work at the spa that morning. Still, police questioned Ranilo, which was why that night, they end up placing a tracker on his car, and they sent about 25 SWAT agents over to the house to search the house. And again, if you're like, whoa, this is overkill. They're dealing with a bomb. A deadly, deadly weapon. Like, this weapon can kill multiple people at once, mass casualties, right? So that's why it is such an intense thing. Because what if there's more? What if he has more at the house that could go off? So during that time,

• 16:32Payton Moreland?

  that 25 SWAT agents are searching their home, Ranilo is brought down to the station for questioning. And he admitted to the police, they had been living pretty separate lives recently. He told them, listen, she's my wife, but Ildiko was definitely dating other men outside of our marriage. I know about it. According to some of Ildiko's friends, she was juggling about five to six different men.

• 16:58Garrett Moreland?

  Damn.

• 16:58Payton Moreland?

  She was definitely like.

• 16:59Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 17:00Payton Moreland?

  It was definitely common knowledge, even to the husband.

• 17:02Garrett Moreland?

  He's getting it.

• 17:03Payton Moreland?

  Were separated, and I'm dating.

• 17:06Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 17:06Payton Moreland?

  Like, it's not necessarily that this was happening behind his back. It was just like, we're separated. And she was dating a lot at the time of the bombing. So this is not an easy suspect list to narrow down when they learn that she is dating this much. But Ranilo knows at least one of the men's name. He says it's a handyman named Max. This Max guy has a key to Ildiko's spa, because he's a handyman. But Ildiko had once told Ranilo that she felt a little weird about Max, because he would sometimes park overnight in the spa parking lot and sleep in his car. So when they hear this, and that he had a key,

• 17:51Payton Moreland?

  and that maybe, you know, him and Ildiko had some type of relationship, again, all from the husband, they bring Max, the handyman, in, and it leads nowhere. Either the guy had a good alibi, or the situation didn't match up, because he was crossed off the suspect list. Which was when police moved on to another person Ranilo knew Ildiko was involved with, a man named Gabor Papp. Now, Ildiko had actually met Gabor a few years prior, so back in 2015. And apparently, the relationship between them had quickly become intimate, even though they both were technically married at the time. So the two got so serious in 2015

• 18:34Payton Moreland?

  that they spoke about leaving their current partners for one another. That was until a fight happened at Ildiko's spa. Apparently, once Gabor's wife, Elizabeth, found out about the affair, she showed up at Ildiko's spa, and things got heated. Some say it turned physical, but apparently, this whole situation caused Ildiko and Gabor to put things on pause, at least for a little while. Two years later, Ildiko found Gabor on Facebook. Again, so that was 2015, it's now 2017. And she gave him a little poke. Remember, when you can just poke people on Facebook?

• 19:16Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, I forgot about that.

• 19:17Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. So his wife, Elizabeth, said that's when she noticed Ildiko had been driving by their home in Eliso Viejo, almost like she was looking for Gabor. Like, she now sees this old mistress of her husband's driving around. So Elizabeth decides, what am I gonna do? Am I gonna confront my husband? Am I gonna confront her? She says, I'm just gonna send Ildiko some photos of me and Gabor being intimate.

• 19:51Garrett Moreland?

  That's a, okay. Great idea.

• 19:53Payton Moreland?

  So she's like, he's my husband. This is what we do. Back off.

• 19:59Speaker 03

  Great meeting. Who took notes? Anyone?

• 20:04Speaker 04

  With Monday Note Taker, nobody has to take notes again. It joins your call, transcribes it, and turns the whole conversation into a clear plan. Action items, owners, deadlines, all right there on your monday.com board, ready for the team. So the meeting ends, and the plan already exists. Meetings aren't just talk anymore. Go to monday.com, the AI workspace platform.

• 20:29Payton Moreland?

  This is Tamsin Fidel from the Tamsin Show. Fall in New York City is my favorite time of year. Crisp mornings, that excuse to layer up, walking around the city without melting. And once that shift happens, I genuinely don't want anything on my feet except Bombas. Their new suede moccasins have been my go-to for the second it cools down. Cushy soles, sheerling lining, water-resistant suede. And I have to remember, comfort this good is technically allowed outside the house. When I'm traveling, I reach straight for their compression socks. They help with the fatigue from being on the plane so much. And I feel so much better landing when I have a pair on. My sock drawer is filled with Bombas now. So I have merino wool for the cold mornings, sweat-wicking pairs for workouts, and a few dressier ones for whatever fall wedding season throws at me. My favorite part, though, for every item you buy,

• 21:13Payton Moreland?

  Bombas donates an essential clothing item to someone facing housing insecurity. One purchased, one donated, over 200 million donations and counting. Head over to Bombas.com/audio and use AUDIO for 20% off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash AUDIO. Code AUDIO at checkout. Now, it's not clear if things had picked back up between Gabor and Ildeko during this time. Like, I don't know if they were seeing each other after this Facebook post, and she was seen driving around. But Elizabeth made it very clear, we were over this two years ago, and I'm not going down without a fight. Now, eventually Elizabeth texts Ron Nilo to tell him,

• 21:56Payton Moreland?

  "Hey, two years ago, I caught your wife having an affair with my husband. This happened a few years back. I just want you to know." Elizabeth even said in the text, quote, "She almost destroyed my family. Enough is enough." I think it's safe to say, Elizabeth, the wife, is spiraling a little bit at this point, to be fair. But Ron Nilo, when confronted with this information by Elizabeth, actually texted her back, telling her to just block Ildiko on Facebook. But she found that absurd, saying, quote, "Really? You're so blind and accept what your wife is doing instead of stepping up? Be a man." And you know what?

• 22:39Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh.

• 22:40Payton Moreland?

  He got this text just a month and a half or so before the package bomb was sent. So obviously, when police learn about this whole affair situation from years back that had also trickled into the weeks before the bomb, basically, they decide to speak to the couple. And the couple cooperated, even handed over all of their electronic devices, hoping to clear their names, and it helped. There was no indication that either of them knew how to build a bomb, had ever researched how to. So detectives scratched their names off the list as well. And that's-

• 23:18Garrett Moreland?

  Your suspects that can actually build a bomb? Like, that's not very high.

• 23:25Payton Moreland?

  I'm sure-

• 23:26Garrett Moreland?

  It's pretty small.

• 23:26Payton Moreland?

  Police are like, holy cow. Like, we have so many potential suspects that probably have good motive, and they're not working, like, they're not actually who's doing this, which has got to be a little wild. So this is when they decide to circle back to something Ildiko's friend Sarah had said. This is the one who had been treated at her spa earlier on the day of the explosion before the mother and daughter. Sarah noticed there was a man hanging around the spa that day, the day of her appointment and the day of the bombing. And she also said Ildiko kind of seemed a little bit unnerved about something. She said, at one point, Ildiko came rushing out of a room with keys

• 24:11Payton Moreland?

  and a mail in her hands. And this man that was kind of lingering tried to speak with Ildiko, but she just shooed him off. And when Sarah was like, "What was that? Who is that guy? What just happened?" Ildiko told Sarah he was just a friend, but she doesn't go into any detail. So when Sarah tells police this, she described the guy as tall and stout with gray hair. Police showed her some photos, and they do eventually determine the guy's identity. Apparently, it was a man who had lunch plans with Ildiko that day, the day of the bombing.

• 24:49Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 24:50Payton Moreland?

  And he had been seen lingering around the spa, and his name was Scott Malali.

• 24:57Garrett Moreland?

  I feel like I've become, like, I'm skeptical of people now. Know what I'm saying?

• 25:03Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 25:04Garrett Moreland?

  Like, I'll be somewhere, and I'm like, "Does that person have a gun?

• 25:08Garrett Moreland?

  Like, does that person have a bomb?"

• 25:09Payton Moreland?

  Why is that person standing there?

• 25:11Garrett Moreland?

  Hey, why is that, like, why is that person acting weird over there?

• 25:13Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 25:14Garrett Moreland?

  Like, what are you doing?

• 25:14Payton Moreland?

  You know who-

• 25:15Garrett Moreland?

  Like, I'm just, I look at people now, and I'm like, nah, you're being weird. Why are you being weird?

• 25:20Payton Moreland?

  You know who gets the most unfair judgment of anyone?

• 25:23Garrett Moreland?

  Who?

• 25:24Payton Moreland?

  People who go alone to movies.

• 25:26Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, do not, yes, I agree. I'm all for it because I would go alone to a movie, but do not come alone to my movie. Don't do it. Do not. Do not come alone to my movie. I'm sorry. Because instantly, it's true. Someone comes in alone to a movie, and I'm like-

• 25:41Payton Moreland?

  Garrett immediately gives me eyes, like-

• 25:43Garrett Moreland?

  When you see that person, they're alone.

• 25:44Payton Moreland?

  There's no one there alone.

• 25:46Garrett Moreland?

  But the thing is, I would go alone to a movie.

• 25:48Payton Moreland?

  There's nothing wrong with going alone to a movie, but they really do get the worst judgment.

• 25:52Garrett Moreland?

  I just don't want you alone in my movie. Anyways, okay, we can keep going.

• 25:56Payton Moreland?

  So the police pay Scott a visit next. They're like, "Man number three, you were supposed to have lunch with her that day." He told them he'd met Ildiko at a casino a few weeks before her death. There was a spark. He'd even drove her to the airport for her flight out to Hungary and had picked her up as soon as she landed at LAX the night before the bombing. He said they spent the night together, and then he drove her to the spa the next day. So this actually matches up with Ron Nilo, the husband's, account that he hadn't seen Ildiko because she didn't actually go back home. She went to Scott's house and then went to work the next morning.

• 26:38Payton Moreland?

  So it actually does match up that he was like, "I don't even know if she's home or not." But police want to obviously check this out. They pull up video footage from baggage claim at LAX. Sure enough, there's Ildiko and Scott standing there on tape. He's helping her with her bags. And after doing a little more digging into Scott, he is also crossed off the suspect list. So man number three is crossed off. He just didn't seem like someone capable of building a bomb. However, police soon learn there's more to Ildiko's last days. Apparently, she didn't fly back from Hungary alone.

• 27:23Payton Moreland?

  She came back with a man who she parted ways from during their layover in San Francisco before she then continued on to Los Angeles and met Scott at LAX. So she actually flew home with a man.

• 27:41Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 27:42Payton Moreland?

  Now, that man was named Laszlo Zabo. So police learned that Laszlo and Ildiko had also been dating for a few months, just kind of on and off at that point, seeing each other. So this is man number four. And I'm not sure how the two of them met, but I know he was Hungarian and had traveled with her to the country on this recent trip. So she had traveled with Laszlo to Hungary when she went back to visit her family. And again, before you're like too worried about remembering all of these characters, I will remind you, if it's important. That's why I just keep saying this is man number four.

• 28:24Payton Moreland?

  So they track Laszlo down in his current home in the San Francisco area. And he says, "I haven't even been to Southern California in months." They eventually find this to be true. So Laszlo is now ruled out.

• 28:39Garrett Moreland?

  Okay, come on. It's 2018. We have cameras.

• 28:42Payton Moreland?

  Hey, they've used the cameras to find these people.

• 28:45Garrett Moreland?

  How can we not find the guy or girl?

• 28:49Payton Moreland?

  Well, when someone has five or six guys that they're seeing at the same time-

• 28:53Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, I get it.

• 28:54Payton Moreland?

  Or girls.

• 28:55Garrett Moreland?

  So they think it's one of them for sure.

• 28:56Payton Moreland?

  They just got to go down the list. I mean-

• 28:58Garrett Moreland?

  Move. We got to move. Come on.

• 29:00Payton Moreland?

  The list is getting smaller, but there was one person police were not able to rule out. Someone who had actually come down to the station on the day of the bombing to voluntarily offer information about Ildiko. It was her business partner and, apparently, former lover. A guy named Stephen Beal.

• 29:22Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 29:23Payton Moreland?

  Now, 58-year-old Stephen was a grandfather who had been widowed with four adult kids. He had lost his wife back around 2008. He had been dipping a toe back into the dating pool over the last couple of years. Now, back in 2016, he said, "He met Ildiko on a dating app, and things kind of got serious. They started going on vacations together. Stephen would spend tons of money on Ildiko. During one trip to Portugal, he apparently spent $10,000 on her, and five of that was for a Louis Vuitton purse that he bought her." He eventually decided to then support her spa business as well.

• 30:06Payton Moreland?

  Stephen helped Ildiko find a location for her spa, and the two signed the lease together. And then he helped her put together a skincare company she wanted to start called INS Enterprises, which Stephen was listed as the CFO of. But as they say, "You should probably never mix business and pleasure." Because soon, things started to go south with the business's finances, and Stephen and Ildiko began fighting about it a lot. And after 18 months of this little fling,

• 30:47Payton Moreland?

  Ildiko went to Stephen and said, "Hey, let's just, like, cool things down a bit." And then she changed the passwords on the financial accounts she once gave Stephen access to. And while Stephen was aware at the time that she was married, he then learned she'd also been seeing other men on the side. Like, she was dating around. It wasn't just him. Ildiko confided in some of her friends about this relationship she had with Steven about how like, we've just gone too deep. Like, we traveled a lot. He helped invest in my stuff. And now I just don't, I want to break up. But like, how do you do that when this man has spent so much money on you? How even before this breakup, he was controlling, he was a little

• 31:32Payton Moreland?

  possessive and would threaten her. Now, of course, Steven doesn't share that part in his interview with police. They get that part from friends. He did tell them, however, again, this is the day of the bombing. The bombing happens, Steven walks in and says, I know her. Here's what I know. He says he and Ildiko were in business together and he felt like she was hiding things from him lately. But when it came to means and motives, Steven voluntarily told police, there was no motive for him to kill her. But the means, well, they might find that in his garage. He tells police, he was into making his own fireworks. And he had been a rocket hobbyist for years.

• 32:17Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 32:18Payton Moreland?

  So detectives are like,

• 32:21Garrett Moreland?

  Found him.

• 32:22Payton Moreland?

  You're just coming in here and telling us this? They're, they ask him, okay, well, would someone with your type of experience be able to convert what you do into a bomb, like to a bigger scale? And Steven said, he has no idea how someone would put together something large enough to produce the blast that occurred at the spa. He's like, that's out of my realm of expertise. But regardless, Steven literally just placed himself directly in their line of fire. I guess his thoughts were, if I go in and I'm open, like, you're probably going to stumble across my name anyways, when you begin learning about her life. So I might as well get ahead of it. And while I'm doing that, I might as well let you know that we were kind of on the rocks,

• 33:06Payton Moreland?

  because we had started business and broke up. And also, I like to build my own fireworks. But that wasn't the case, because Steven, he just could not shut up in this interview. And shockingly, the fireworks were not the weirdest part about this interview with detectives. After talking about his little rocket hobby, Steven told them, he also had something else he was very interested in. He was just like, singing.

• 33:34Garrett Moreland?

  This guy's just talking up a storm. You know, something I've realized is, I try, I try not to overshare.

• 33:44Payton Moreland?

  You're very mysterious.

• 33:46Garrett Moreland?

  I try not to overshare. I try not to overtalk. I try to stay a little mysterious, a little cool. But also, I feel like it tends to help me out in the long run.

• 33:58Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, I think because you do your 10 seconds, people probably think you're very open. But when you meet Garrett in person, he's very closed off. He's a real tough cookie to crack.

• 34:08Garrett Moreland?

  I just don't really feel like giving everyone everything.

• 34:10Payton Moreland?

  You're the most vulnerable in your 10 seconds.

• 34:13Garrett Moreland?

  I'm like, yeah, I'm not going to give you that. Or if I do give you something, is it a lie? Is it the truth?

• 34:18Payton Moreland?

  Me, on the other hand, if I got out and said, I just talked to detectives for nine hours, Garrett would be like, yeah, I'm sure you did.

• 34:26Garrett Moreland?

  Surprise me. True.

• 34:29Payton Moreland?

  Well, Steven is the same. Okay, he's like, oh, it's not just rockets that I love. Let me tell you.

• 34:34Garrett Moreland?

  Except Loki, when you were pregnant, I was telling every listener that came into the shop. I was like, Kat Payne's pregnant.

• 34:39Payton Moreland?

  I would get texts from people and be like, Garrett just told me the news. I'm like,

• 34:43Garrett Moreland?

  I'm sure I was telling everyone you were pregnant.

• 34:47Payton Moreland?

  He says he likes writing screenplays. Turns out Steven was also an actor and writer, who said he had been working on a script about a part-time soccer mom who had a secret life as an assassin. And he emphasized that she was very good at what she does and knew how to cover her tracks. Oh, and then he was like, do you guys want to see a magic trick?

• 35:10Garrett Moreland?

  Okay, well, he's just a little crazy.

• 35:13Payton Moreland?

  Officers said they were quote, blown away. And not by the quality of the illusion, but by the fact that Steven just, he was talking and he thought he was really smart. He was like, I write this, I do this, you want to see a magic trick? He somehow came across like he was the soccer mom assassin who knew how to cover his tracks. But Steven was doing the complete opposite. He led them right to his doorstep, where they showed up that day with a warrant to then search his property in Long Beach, California. So they interview him and then they're like, yep, we're gonna go search to see what we find. He already told us he likes rockets. Sure enough,

• 35:52Payton Moreland?

  they discovered batteries, two handguns and a shotgun, two improvised explosive devices, and 100 pounds of explosive material was found at Steven Beal's home.

• 36:07Garrett Moreland?

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• 36:12Payton Moreland?

  We love Skims and I'm so excited I get to talk to you about their loungewear and pajamas. If you follow me on Instagram, I just posted, but I did get one of their sleep sets that's like a deep burgundy color. So cute, so rich, so soft. And then I also got a fleece set that's like this chocolate brown. So freaking cute. I love a good matching set and I love Skims. Again, the sleep set I got is the soft lounge sleep set. I always get asked like what exactly

• 36:52Payton Moreland?

  it is. So yes, the soft lounge sleep set, it has the perfect weight, the perfect stretch, the fabric will not irritate your skin. Honestly, I recommend Skims to everyone due to just the quality and the comfort that it brings. So go check out their cotton fleece sets or their sleep sets right now.

• 37:13Garrett Moreland?

  Shop Peyton's favorite loungewear and pajamas at skims.com. After you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you. Select podcast in the survey and be sure to select our show in the drop down menu that follows.

• 37:26Payton Moreland?

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• 38:11Payton Moreland?

  to stop it before it starts. And they have so many different options. If you haven't got on and checked it out, just do it, guys. If you've been waiting for a sign to get some security, this is it. Join the more than 6 million people who entrust SimpliSafe with their home security. Right now, save 60% off with professional monitoring when you visit simplisafe.com/husband. That is an amazing code, guys. 60% off. That is simplisafe.com/husband. And when you order, again, just please let them know Murder With My Husband sent you. Write it in at the checkout survey. It just lets them know we sent you and it helps support the show. SimpliSafe, ahead of

• 38:53Payton Moreland?

  crime and in real time. So the day after the explosion, on May 16th, 2018, Steven Beal was arrested, but not for homicide. No, he was arrested for one charge of possessing an unregistered destructive device. And then two days later, prosecutors actually dropped those charges, primarily because a lab tech with the FBI said, they couldn't rule out the fact that those devices might have actually been used for his rocket hobby, not bomb making, just like Steven had claimed. So do you even have enough evidence to prove he's the one who made this bomb and set

• 39:38Payton Moreland?

  it off? So Steven Beal goes, gets out, he gets to live his life, but the police are not going to let him off that easily. They continue looking deeper into him to see if there's any more evidence there. Because, I mean, they've now gone through four men. This is the fifth that she has dated. This fifth one invested a lot of money into her. Also found out she was seeing other men, and also was her business partner. And likes making fireworks. Police are like, no, there's something going on. They just need more evidence. And one of the things they found was the stalking. Turns out, in the weeks and months before the bombing,

• 40:21Payton Moreland?

  Steven had apparently been keeping close tabs on Ildiko's online accounts he still had access to, which by the way, was her personal calendar.

• 40:32Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh.

• 40:33Payton Moreland?

  Her social media account.

• 40:34Garrett Moreland?

  Weirdo.

• 40:35Payton Moreland?

  You name it. He had somehow figured out how to get access to it. He also went by the spa several times while she was out of the country in Hungary, which wouldn't be that surprising, you know, because I mean, he still owns some of it. He's still involved in it. But police also suspected that he dropped off the package during one of those visits, knowing that when she came back and returned to the spa, she would open it. But there's just not enough proof yet. It's just a theory. They have proof that he was going there while she was gone. They just don't have proof putting the package in his hands. So the police keep digging through thousands of hours of CCTV footage and other records, trying to find the smoking gun.

• 41:20Payton Moreland?

  And several months into their investigation, they find something hidden in Steven's financial records. He had bought three boxes at a store right around the corner from the spa. Just simple six by six cardboard boxes. Exactly.

• 41:38Garrett Moreland?

  Okay, now we're getting somewhere.

• 41:40Payton Moreland?

  Like the bomb was packaged in. And they had camera footage of him making that purchase just a week before the bomb went off in the spa. And then they remembered that nine volt battery they found at the scene and how it was CVS brand. So they roll the dice. They look back at the security cameras from the CVS right around the corner from Ildiko's spa. And they also do it around the same time that they know Steven bought those boxes. And that's when they see Steven on camera in CVS buying a single nine volt battery and paying for it in cash. Now, shortly after making these discoveries, the lab techs with the FBI also come back with some evidence of their own.

• 42:22Payton Moreland?

  They concluded there was no, quote, meaningful differences between some of the wires recovered from the crime scene and the wires that were in the devices found at Steven's home. All of this to say to lab techs, it was a probable match. So now you have him buying.

• 42:41Garrett Moreland?

  Batteries, boxes.

• 42:43Payton Moreland?

  That the bomb was found in.

• 42:44Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 42:45Payton Moreland?

  The exact type of battery used in the bomb.

• 42:47Garrett Moreland?

  Which, let's be honest, those are all very generic. Like what you're naming is very generic. Boxes, batteries. Not saying, I mean, he's probably guilty, but I'm just saying.

• 43:00Payton Moreland?

  The wires matched ones found in his home. But when you put all of that together, he's buying every single supply to make the bomb. He has a hundred pounds of explosive material at his home.

• 43:12Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 43:13Payton Moreland?

  To make this bomb. And he has more than enough motive to kill her. Police are like, mm, we think this is enough to make an arrest. On March 3rd, 2019, this is nearly 10 months after the explosion. Steven Beal kissed his new fiance goodbye that morning.

• 43:33Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh.

• 43:35Payton Moreland?

  10 months later, and he has a new fiance after allegedly bombing an ex. And he goes out to run some errands and later he calls her to say, hey, I've just been arrested for murder. It then takes nearly three years.

• 43:53Garrett Moreland?

  Oh my gosh.

• 43:54Payton Moreland?

  For Steven's case to get its day in court. So it's now 2022. And the prosecution reminded the jury, hey, Ildiko is not the only victim in Steven's crime. There was also a mother and daughter who would have to live with the memory of that day and the aftermath, losing an eye, the trauma of it. Also, had they been standing in a different spot.

• 44:18Garrett Moreland?

  Probably could have died.

• 44:19Payton Moreland?

  Probably would have died. And as for motive, they told the jury, let's tell you everything we know about Steven and Ildiko's relationship. Like, he's obsessed. He found out she was seeing other men. He was seething with jealousy. Apparently, Steven had even screenshotted texts on his phone that he discovered of a text message conversation between Ildiko and her new boyfriend, Loslow, the one she went to Hungary with. So they're like, he has proof on his own phone of her talking to other guys. Why would he, why would he even have this? They also showed the jurors a video Steven had made showing how to mix explosive chemicals to make fireworks at home. So he was, you know, documenting his hobby.

• 45:03Payton Moreland?

  And how many of the parts that he bought that were in this specific bomb or had at his home? I mean, all the signs were there, but the defense argued, listen, there was so many people with motive to get rid of Ildiko. Think of all of the men that you talked to. You have the couple who had been in this years long battle with this affair, or even Ildiko's husband, Ronilo. They also pointed to the possibility of Max, the handyman, who would have access to the spa. They also said Steven bought Ildiko that battery for her business. They were like, there's no proof, like Garrett said, it's generic. There's no proof that he used that

• 45:47Payton Moreland?

  battery for the bomb or that those boxes he bought were used for the bomb. Overall, the trial lasted seven weeks. 70 different witnesses were called to the stand. When the jury returned, some of them had reasonable doubt.

• 46:02Garrett Moreland?

  Hmm.

• 46:03Payton Moreland?

  They didn't come to an agreement. A hung jury met a mistrial. No verdict. But the prosecution was not done. In the meantime, Steven went back to jail because he was unable to make his bail. But as he waited for his second trial to come in June of 2023, some new information came to light. Information that suggested this might not have even been Steven's first time dealing with a situation like this. Turns out, they discovered there was some suspicious circumstances surrounding his own wife's death back in 2008. On February 16th of that year, 48-year-old Steven and his wife, 48-year-old Christine,

• 46:45Payton Moreland?

  were carrying a heavy piece of furniture down the stairs of their Long Beach home. Steven was carrying the top part of a 50-pound table and Christine was on the bottom. Apparently, Steven lost his balance and let go of the table and the table fell on top of Christine while they were going down the stairs.

• 47:08Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 47:08Payton Moreland?

  And it fell on top of her. The injury was severe, but she survived. It was extremely painful, though. Christine went to see multiple doctors in the weeks that followed. Eventually, after several days of vomiting, Christine died on March 8th from what was said to be a result of her injuries from this fall. The autopsy report said her cause of death was pancreatitis or an inflammation of the organ, as well as an electrolyte imbalance. Her manner of death was listed as undetermined. So this is his ex-wife that this happened to.

• 47:43Garrett Moreland?

  Crazy.

• 47:43Payton Moreland?

  But there was something a little odd about the report. It said the lead in Christine's blood was four times higher than what it should have been.

• 47:52Garrett Moreland?

  No way they didn't catch this.

• 47:54Payton Moreland?

  And the source of that lead poisoning was unknown. However, prosecutors found that Steven had actually purchased lead in the months before Christine's death from a company called Virginia Pyrotechnics.

• 48:08Garrett Moreland?

  How do we miss this?

• 48:10Payton Moreland?

  Turns out detectives did investigate this death around the same time as Ildiko's thinking the two can now be related. But according to a department spokesperson, they found nothing to suggest that her death was criminal. Instead, Steven's kids think the lead came from the renovations their parents were doing on the house. And apparently, Steven himself had actually gone for treatment for lead poisoning a few months before his wife died. But there's obviously more to the story when people keep digging. Steven took out a, quote, accidental death insurance policy on Christine through his work.

• 48:49Garrett Moreland?

  This is getting ridiculous. This is ridiculous.

• 48:51Payton Moreland?

  Few weeks before he then accidentally dropped the table on her.

• 48:55Garrett Moreland?

  I don't need to hear anymore. Put him in jail.

• 48:57Payton Moreland?

  But when he went to claim the life insurance, it was denied because they're like, we don't even know how she died. We can't give it to you. Steven eventually filed a lawsuit against both his employer and the insurance company, and he won $550,000.

• 49:11Garrett Moreland?

  Gosh.

• 49:12Payton Moreland?

  Now, as Steven's going to retrial in June of 2023, people are like, we're going to bring this up. In July of 2023, after the trial, his second trial, he was found guilty of four felonies. Malicious destruction of a building resulting in death, use of a destructive device during and in relation to a crime of violence, possession of an unregistered destructive device, and using a weapon of mass destruction. Steven sentencing hearing came in January of 2024. There, the prosecution hoped to use the information about his wife to kind of bolster the sentence, but the judge wasn't

• 49:57Payton Moreland?

  taking it into consideration. Still, Steven Beal was given life plus 30 years in federal prison, and he will not be eligible for parole. But in the end, it's hard to wonder, would Steven Beal have ever even ended up under the microscope if not for his own big mouth?

• 50:15Garrett Moreland?

  Probably not.

• 50:16Payton Moreland?

  Would the police have eventually caught on after going through all the men? I'm sure his name would have come up.

• 50:21Garrett Moreland?

  No, I think you're right. I think they were slowly going through everybody.

• 50:24Payton Moreland?

  He just made it fast.

• 50:25Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 50:26Payton Moreland?

  We'd hope, obviously, that that's true, but you also have Christine's death.

• 50:31Garrett Moreland?

  That's crazy. And he'll never probably get charged for that. That's crazy.

• 50:35Payton Moreland?

  Allegedly.

• 50:36Garrett Moreland?

  Allegedly killed his ex-wife.

• 50:38Payton Moreland?

  He accidentally took out the life insurance policy and then accidentally dropped the table on her that accidentally killed her.

• 50:43Garrett Moreland?

  So sad. That's horrible.

• 50:46Payton Moreland?

  He hasn't obviously paid the price for that, at least not yet. But he is in prison for Ildiko's murder. And that is her case.

• 50:58Garrett Moreland?

  That's horrible. I'm, I'm glad more, more people didn't die.

• 51:02Payton Moreland?

  Right?

• 51:02Garrett Moreland?

  Like surprisingly more people didn't die.

• 51:05Payton Moreland?

  Also, like, again.

• 51:07Garrett Moreland?

  Out of all the ways to kill somebody a bomb, like if you're trying to kill one person, that seems, I mean, it's, I guess, killing someone in general is.

• 51:15Payton Moreland?

  Also, you're immediately getting the FBI involved.

• 51:18Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, like.

• 51:19Payton Moreland?

  You're asking for the most intense.

• 51:22Garrett Moreland?

  Like, you're not getting away with it.

• 51:23Payton Moreland?

  Investigation.

• 51:23Garrett Moreland?

  If you do a bomb, you are not getting away with this. That's so sad. It's horrible.

• 51:28Payton Moreland?

  Why are you buying the supplies around the corner?

• 51:31Garrett Moreland?

  Insane. Crazy.

• 51:33Payton Moreland?

  Anyways, that was our case for this week. Thank you for watching or listening, and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

• 51:40Garrett Moreland?

  I hate it.

• 51:41Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.

• 51:56Speaker 04

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